SUSPIRIA on Blu-Ray

Looks like the new Eagle Blu-Ray of SUSPIRIA manifests the same screwed-around colour timing of the recent and horrifying SD-DVD "restored" edition from the same distributor, i.e. blown-out contrasts, ghastly yellows and red-tinted final shots of Jessica Harper. Granted, the "review" I linked to seems to be of a 720p rip of the new Blu-Ray disc, but that shouldn't affect the colour palette (unless what he's actually looking at is a rip of the SD-DVD disc)...

Adding insult to injury, the Italian BD only has Italian audio and subs, unlike their SD-DVD release, thus rendering it null and void as an option for most Anglophone Argento fans. I haven't gone Blu yet, but probably will by the end of the year: seems we may have to wait and see what the Weinsteins do (if anything) with the title in the US...fingers crossed they don't simply use the Italian HD master.

I'm not ready to write off the HD master until I see it. The DVDs were downconversions, and things can go very wrong when doing any sort of conversion. The HD version was screened theatrically at Cannes in 2007, and later in France, and word from those screenings was that it looked great projected in HD.

Vincent

Vincent, I know you've probably seen this already, but here is Michael Mackenzie's reaction to the Italian Blu-Ray disc:

Michael Mackenzie on SUSPIRIA Blu-Ray

Not a pretty sight...

Well, I've just compared a few scenes from the Anchor Bay DVD to this, and it seems to me that the gamma is definitely boosted too high on the new Blue Ray. For example, in the taxi scene early on, there's a much more pronounced blue filter present on the inside cab shots. Also, when the taxi comes around the corner, instead of seeing the headlights piercing the rain and dark, now there's a big glare of headlights, obscuring much of the front.

However, a lot of the indoor shots look fine. Brightness is improved and detail of course is much better.

It looks as if someone adjusted the settings according to one scene, and then left them like that, not taking into account the variations throughout the film. Given how the actual material seems to be, I'm guessing that this happened somewhere during the transfer process.

It's a really mixed bag. A lot of it makes the AB DVD look dull, by comparison, yet there's a lot of flaring that shouldn't be happening.


Btw, the audio is different, too. At the climax, Mater Suspiriorum doesn't speak as much. When Suzy enters the room, it plays quietly until there's bits of demonic laughter and she doesn't say anything until the death is coming for you" line.
It's not a lack of audio, but rather a different mix, I think. Also, the Anchor Bay disc is mixed much louder. Good news is that the thunder sound effect is back at the end.

Dunno what master it's going to be sourced from, but Cinemax is airing Suspiria in high-def on July 8th.

Can anybody record it to Blu-ray or HD-DVD for me?

The Cinemax-HD airing of Suspiria did have the beating-heart title rather than the text from the Anchor Bay DVD. I only watched it for a moment -- it was cropped after the opening titles -- but the colors weren't hypersaturated as they are on the Italian Blu-ray disc. The runtime was listed as 97 min.

Looks like my Magnum Video laserdisc is still the way to go on this title. When will this poor film ever be done justice on DVD?

Any idea what the audio was on the Cinemax HD version? Did anybody else catch this or DVR it? A 97-minute run time suggests it's uncut, but the breathing title suggests otherwise.

Vincent

I don't have it on my DVR anymore to check, unfortunately. My DVR listed the runtime as 97 minutes, but HBO's website says 93.

It's currently only on the schedule in HD on some of Cinemax's less carried channels:

http://www.hbo.com/apps/schedule/ScheduleS...L&FOCUS_ID=2411

According to the channel lineups grid on AVS, Dish Network carries ActionMax, and Verizon, AT&T, and some Comcast and Time Warner markets carry that and the others. Ditto for Cablevision, apparently.